Your Top Ten David Tennant Moments Of 2012

As 2012 draws to a close and we reflect, dewy eyed, on our highlights of times gone by, we just have time left for a retrospect on the David Tennant highlights of the year. Yesterday we asked fans to pick their favourite David moments of 2012 and we have them to share below (in no particular order):

1. The Absolute Radio Nativity Play

On Friday 21st December David joined Christian O’Connell and the gang to co-host the Absolute Radio Breakfast Show, including the Breakfast Show panto Nativity 3: Dude Where’s My Donkey? David dutifully pulled on a long white gown and a flowing black wig and turned his acting dials up to eleven to take the role of the Virgin Mary. The play also starred host Christian O’Connell as Joseph, travel presenter Maggie Doyle as the Angel O’Gabrielle and Ian Wright as the Dinosaur Midwife. The birth scene alone was equally memorable and incredibly disturbing. Kim Kuterbach on Facebook and JustDenise and Mel from DT Forum as picked this as their highlight of the year

David attended two fan conventions this year: Massive Events Lords Of Time in September and Starfury Midnight in December

The Lords Of Time convention – David had appeared at the EMS show for photos and autographs late in 2011, but this was his first full UK convention. David extended his autograph session to get through everyone, and gave an hilarious and frank talk. Joanne Wood on Facebook chose a particular moment from the talk: “Seriously, for me it was David talking about Lis Sladen at Lords of Time. So beautifully spoken & moved everyone in the room.”

Some of the luckier fans were able to spend more time with David through the Guest Encounter and the Gold Tickets drinks reception. The weekend was also packed with a whole load of other very entertaining guests too: Frazer Hines, Marc Benton, James Moran and Anthony Head to name but a few.

Twitter member @MalkinDiane said:” I met [David] at Lords of Time. I have a lovely pic to remember. He is a very nice guy and he had so much time for everyone.”

Midnight – Also on the convention front, more people named the Midnight convention as their moment of the year, as another chance to meet David and in some cases to shake his hand. It was also significant for the reunion of David with Billie Piper. mumi05 on Twitter has memories of her first convention and of meeting David and Billie along with all the other fab David fans! Hayat left a comment on the website to say that their highlight of the day was David and Billie hugging during their guest talk.

3. Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger

Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger was announced in late 2011 and we followed the filming in Warwickshire & Wales with keen interest.

A year later and the film hit with a great big bang. Gigantic images of David were everywhere, on the sides of buses and town centre billboards. There was even a big Christmas themed London premiere attended by many of the stars including David, Marc Wootton, Jessica Hynes and Joanna Page and other celebrity guests. And though the film wasn’t to the taste of most critics, audiences defied the reviews to attend in their droves, sending the movie towards the top of the Box Office rankings and setting it up to be the most successful independent British film of 2012 . Despite having only been released in the UK and Ireland so far, excitement for it spread worldwide. Even US-based Carol Riedel named it as one of her highlights of the year.

The film was a riotous romp through the Welsh countryside with a gang of kids, an insane classroom assistant, a baby and the worst behaved donkey in the land. Favourite moments? Well, two David Tennant characters was never going to disappoint fans, according to forum member Saucimel, but top moment has to be David visibly on the point of dissolving into giggles as young actors Jesse and Pixie attempt to repeat his and Marc’s words. Watch the clip here:

As famously unsporty as he claims to be, David turned up in a particularly memorable costume in the ad campaign to help promote the Sport Relief Miles this year:

On The One Show, David Tennant talked about the advert and Sport Relief. He was asked: “Are you running the mile yourself?” His response: “I’ll guess I’ll have to. I can’t really dress up as a sauce bottle and tell everybody else to do and not do it myself.”

On the day David did indeed show up, thankfully minus the sauce bottle, though our Twitter follower @manipulator73 and joanne both point out his shorts for particular attention. Sarah Hadland, Miranda Hart, Georgia Moffett and Richard Hammond also took part in the run with John Bishop and Anthony Cotton in the Manchester leg.

After the race a remarkably cool and collected David was interviewed in the studio with Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond, who had yet to run his own race. David showed off his competitors’ medal. “I thought I’d won” he joked “But everyone gets one”. He declared that he was amazed by the scale of the event and stressed how important it was that the event raised as much money as possible. Having spent three days in Africa filming a report for Comic Relief last year he explained that he was well aware that a sum of money that is a pittance for us can transform lives for the most poverty stricken people around the world.

5. Attack Of The Show

Back in August David travelled to America to take part in the TCA Summer Press Tour where he was part of a panel presenting Spies Of Warsaw to American and Canadian critics. While he was there he also took time to record an interview with Matt Mira for the G4 magazine programme Attack Of The Show. Agata Lewandowska emailed us to say “He was totally enjoying it, seemed very relaxed and happy.I loved it how he geeked out about the green sweater trick. He also spoke a little about filming Spies of Warsaw in Poland and said some interesting things about that.“

Watch the video of David’s appearance below:

6. The Pirates! Premiere

The Aardman animated movie The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists was released in cinemas around the world around Easter this year, giving us a new David character in the Claymation shape of Charles Darwin. For many, the film itself, also featuring the voices of Hugh Grant, Imelda Staunton and Martin Freeman, was a highpoint in itself. However, Amanda from Facebook chose a moment not from the film but from the star-studded premiere, in which David was interviewed by young reporter Leonardo from Film Club UK. Amanda says of her moment: “For me it was David kneeling down when a little boy from, I think a film club, interviewed him at the premiere of the Pirates film. Just goes to show how thoughtful he is and that he thinks of everything.” Watch the clip here, which also includes interviews with co-star Hugh Grant, writer Gideon Defoe and director Peter Lord.

7. Comedy World Cup

Several people chose David’s foray into the world of presenting when he was announced as the host of Channel 4 panel show Comedy World Cup. Many picked up on the fact that the unscripted moments allowed David’s quick-wittedness to shine through, others liked his interactions with the star guests and more liked anticipating which comedy icon would be on his t-shirt of the week. Aura de Sanctis on Facebook and PDawg on the Forum both chose the show as their highlight, while PDawg, krikkiter68 and macdonald71 reminisced about the pilot show which they attended. Macdonald71 said: “…a very funny show, plus the opportunity to gaze at beautiful David over the autocue for three hours – one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever had…”

And, of course, who can forget the classic moment when veteran entertainer Nicolas Parsons chose to re-enact a moment from a Morecambe and Wise sketch with ‘help’ from a started David. “I’ve just been manhandled by Nicolas Parsons”, David said afterwards “I’m all a-jigger!”

8. David’s animated world

Ninewood from the forum found it difficult to choose between two of David’s animated characters this year. The first was Twigs from the CBeebies hit pre-school show whom we met for the first time in March. The excitable and anarchic little acorn sprite quickly won over many hearts, helped, no doubt, by video clips revealing David’s somewhat dynamic recording style when voicing the character. His co-star, former classic Who companion Sophie Aldred told us this autumn that it was a real pleasure having the opportunity to work with David over such a length of time and was already enjoying preparations for the second series. Watch a brief trailer for the show from animators Blue-Zoo:

Ninewood’s other choice was the moment when David fulfilled some of the dreams of his inner geek by voicing a character on the Cartoon Network show Star Wars: The Clone Wars. David played an ancient droid named Huyang, an expert in the construction of light sabers, who appeared in a four-episode story arc involving a group of Jedi younglings. David has expressed his excitement over getting the call, but it appears the feeling was entirely mutual; Clone Wars supervising producer Dave Filoni could hardly believe that ‘The Doctor’ would want to appear in his show! We can only hope now that with the announcement of three new Star Wars movies that this can lead to big opportunities for David!

Watch a clip of David as Huyang here:

9. The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Another favourite was the Sonnets by William Shakespeare iPad app from Touchpress, All 154 sonnets were recorded by some of the greatest Shakespearean actors, directors and experts for a unique multi-media offering. David was filmed reciting four of the titles.

“I wish he had recorded more of them!” said Agata, who chose the app as one of her highlights.

Watch David reading Sonnet 12: When I Do Count The Clock That Tells The Time

10. David’s audio work

David never fails to disappoint with his audio work, and 2012 was another bumper year in that respect. On the audiobook front we had the epic unabridged readings of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Silver: Return To Treasure Island. As 2012 was the year of the Cultural Olympiad we were treated to two new recordings of Shakespeare plays for BBC Radio Three in Romeo And Juliet and Twelfth Night. David also recorded Waiting For The Boatman, a new play by Stephen Wakelam, read an abridged version of the new Iain Banks novel Stonemouth for Book At Bedtime and joined the cast of Richard Wilson’s comedy biography Believe It! But for many the favourite has to be the dramatized version of Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer in which he played the spiky, acerbic Leo opposite Emilia Fox’s flirtacious Emmi. The moment when David breathed the words ‘Wildly erotic’ into the ears of listeners worldwide was a sure-fire highlight for many!

An honourable mention has to go to David’s feature film The Decoy Bride which had a low-key release in March. Although it was never critically acclaimed it did show off David’s great skills as a comic actor and this sweet love story quickly became a firm favourite in the hearts of many fans. It was just squeezed out of the Top Ten but we feel it still deserves a little recognition

So, that’s the Top Ten as chosen by our readers around the world! Thank you everyone who took the time to contribute, and sorry if your personal favourite moment got missed off – perhaps his TV dramas True Love or The Minor Character or his unforgettable rendition of Spandau Ballet’s Gold, to name but a few. But we’re sure that David will give us plenty of new moments to choose from in 2013.